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Ox- Tail Soup

A hearty soup made from ox tail, beef, onion, celery, and brown flour, simmered slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ox- Tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Wash the ox-tail pieces and place them in a soup pot with 5 quarts of water and 2 pounds of beef.

  2. Boil slowly for several hours until the meat falls off the bone.

  3. Strain the soup and let it stand overnight.

  4. Skim off some of the fat and return the soup to the kettle.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil for 2 hours, then add the chopped onion, celery, and brown flour.

  2. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ox-tail
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and body as it simmers down, with gelatin from the bones.
Beef from the shoulder
Adds more meat and rich beefy flavor to the broth during the long simmer.
Brown flour
Thickens the soup slightly and adds a toasted, roasted flavor.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma that rounds out the soup's flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat after standing overnight. Fat that has solidified on the chilled broth should be skimmed off before reheating. Leaving it in makes the soup greasy, while removing too much can strip flavor, so skim the fat layer rather than the broth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, flour, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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